Kyle Larson wins first NASCAR North Wilkesboro race since 1996

In 2013, Kyle Larson won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Rockingham Speedway in a short-lived revival of the track after a decade-long dormancy. On Saturday, he won the Truck race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in what NASCAR fans hope will be a longer stint back on the schedule.

Racing the #7 for Spire Motorsports in relief of his injured Cup Series team-mate Alex Bowman, Larson led 138 of 252 laps to notch his third career Truck victory. While a dominant outing, matters got dicey at the end as Chase Purdy and Christian Eckes‘ tangle with five laps remaining set up overtime, during which he had to hold off Ty Majeski and fellow Cup driver Bubba Wallace.

The victory is the second for Spire at the Truck level after William Byron, also a Cup colleague of Larson, won at another short track in Martinsville last year. Larson also recorded his third career Truck victory and first since Eldora in 2016, though he had only raced in the series three more times after that.

“It was a really fun track there, especially in the truck where you can use the apron and such at both ends,” Larson stated. “I had a good time. That was a lot of fun on the long runs.

“I wasn’t supposed to run. Unfortunately, Alex got hurt, and I got the opportunity to run this.”

Wallace and Larson traded the lead throughout the final stage before Larson cleared him on lap 238. The two, along with Byron (finished eleventh) and Christopher Bell (sixteenth), were Cup drivers using the Trucks to prepare for the NASCAR All-Star Race on Sunday.

“For me, racing on something different, a place that is worn out and allows tyre fall off, I thought that was really, really fun,” Wallace commented. “We needed it to go green from start to finish because we were really good on that long run in the second stage. We went from fourteenth to fourth. The way the cautions fell, which is not going to change up your mindset, but none of us know how hard is too hard when there are thirty laps left. When we have seventh laps left, we have a good gauge on how hard I can push.

“It’s just frustrating. Last weekend, we could have won the race. This weekend, it would have been fun to battle more with Larson, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

As is second nature to the Trucks in recent times, ten cautions for wrecks took place. While most were for spins after two trucks collided, the largest on lap 202 saw Tyler Ankrum get shoved into the wall while racing in a pack before a stack-up occurred with Rajah Caruth, Ben Rhodes, and Zane Smith.

The race was the first at North Wilkesboro since NASCAR departed the track at the end of 1996. Both Truck Series races there in 1995 and 1996 were won by Fords, making the Chevrolet of Larson the first non-Blue Oval Truck victor.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	8	7	Kyle Larson*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	252	Running
2	3	98	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Ford	252	Running
3	15	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	252	Running
4	2	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	252	Running
5	14	1	Bubba Wallace*	TRICON Garage	Toyota	252	Running
6	1	11	Corey Heim	TRICON Garage	Toyota	252	Running
7	18	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Ford	252	Running
8	24	4	Chase Purdy	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	252	Running
9	12	41	Ross Chastain*	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	252	Running
10	7	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	252	Running
11	4	51	William Byron*	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	252	Running
12	32	30	Chris Hacker	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	252	Running
13	33	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	252	Running
14	16	43	Daniel Dye #	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	252	Running
15	6	32	Bret Holmes #	Bret Holmes Racing	Chevrolet	252	Running
16	9	61	Christopher Bell*	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	252	Running
17	11	20	Kaden Honeycutt	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	252	Running
18	31	15	Tanner Gray	TRICON Garage	Toyota	252	Running
19	22	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	252	Running
20	10	13	Hailie Deegan	ThorSport Racing	Ford	252	Running
21	27	17	Taylor Gray #	TRICON Garage	Toyota	252	Running
22	34	02	Kris Wright	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	252	Running
23	21	35	Jake Garcia #	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	252	Running
24	5	9	Colby Howard	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	252	Running
25	13	19	Christian Eckes	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	252	Running
26	17	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	250	Running
27	35	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
28	28	22	Josh Williams*	AM Racing	Ford	221	Water Pump
29	30	66	Conner Jones	ThorSport Racing	Ford	219	Electrical
30	20	2	Nick Sanchez #	Rev Racing	Chevrolet	213	Running
31	26	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	211	Running
32	36	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	204	Accident
33	19	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	202	Accident
34	23	24	Rajah Caruth #	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	200	Accident
35	25	5	Dean Thompson	TRICON Garage	Toyota	182	Accident
36	29	04	Johnny Sauter	Roper Racing	Ford	153	Electrical
DNQ		75	Parker Kligerman	Henderson Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ		33	Josh Reaume	Reaume Brothers Racing	Ford
DNQ		6	Norm Benning	Norm Benning Racing	Chevrolet
Wth		46	Akinori Ogata	G2G Racing	Toyota

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points